Lilli Waters
Lilli Waters (born 1983, Armidale, NSW) is a fine arts photographer whose work
explores the human condition through dramatic images of the female form in
haunting, windswept landscapes. A Lilli Waters image has a painterly quality,
evoking the Pre-Raphaelites with macabre, foreboding elements, a jewel-like
palette and a sensitive use of light. Waters makes use of translucent fabrics and
long hair to obscure the identities of her subjects, suggesting that the image might
be just as much a mirror for the viewer, as it is a portrait.
These images initially appear to represent a romantic idea of beauty and an
equivalence between the fertility of the female body and the landscape. Yet in the
era of ‘Me Too’ and ecological crisis, Waters’ work ofers a critical feminine gaze.
Her portraits allude to the conundrum of simply being in a woman’s skin: of how
to express physical agency and ease in a society that constantly objectifies women
and irrevocably wreaks damage on the environment. These are images that convey
complex emotions: the interplay of darkness and luminosity, strength and
vulnerability, and the possibility for new understandings based on an awareness of
our dependence on the earth.
An ecological concern also finds expression in Waters’ underwater still life series
which reference Northern Renaissance paintings in lighting and composition. Her
underwater works feature live marine creatures amongst rocks, fruit and flowers to
evoke other-worldly landscapes with a palpable feeling of space and slowed time.
Waters representations of luxuriant, yet fragile beauty are a reminder of the
imminent loss of whole species and ecosystems as a result of climate change.
Lilli’s work has been exhibited to much acclaim in Italy, Germany, Japan, the UK,
the US and Australia. Her images have appeared in publications around the globe
– including Vogue Living (Aus), Belle Magazine (Aus), Art Aesthetica (UK), Real
Living Magazine (Aus), Austrian Living (Austria), Jane by the Grey Attic (Aus) and
The Opera Magazine (Germany) as well as appeared in feature films, including
Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed (USA). She has been a finalist in the
Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2021), Nillumbik Prize for
Contemporary Art (2021), Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2020), Beautiful Bizarre
Art Prize (2020), Du Reitz Art Awards (2020), Percival Photographic Art Prize
(2020), National Portrait Prize (2019), Australian Photography Awards (2018) and
Art Aesthetica Art Award (2018).
Lilli is reprented by Curatorial & Co gallery in NSW, and Metro gallery in VIC.
Dark Matter, 2019
Archival pigment print on fibre rag
90 x 135 cm (unframed)
Prisoner of Comfort, 2019
Archival pigment print on fibre rag
135 x 90 cm
Underworld, 2019
Archival pigment print on fibre rag
90 x 135 cm (unframed)
As The World Falls Down #2
Archival Pigment Prints on Fibre Rag
135 x 90 cm unframed
ANJA #25
Archival Pigment Prints on Fibre Rag
90 x 135 cm unframed
As The World Falls Down #4
Archival Pigment Prints on Fibre Rag
90 x 135 cm unframed
ANJA #25
Archival Pigment Prints on Fibre Rag
135 x 90 cm unframed
Dress & War
Archival Pigment Prints on Fibre Rag
135 x 90
cm unframed
ANJA #30
Archival Pigment Prints on Fibre Rag
90 x 135 cm unframed
SANCTUARY, 2018
Archival Pigment Print on Cotton Rag
Limited edition of 8 + 2 AP
73.3 x 110 cm
Utero, 2018
Archival Pigment Print on Cotton Rag
Limited edition of 8 + 2 AP
73.3 x 110 cm
Selected Solo Exhibition
2021
To be announced, Metro Gallery, VIC
2020
Disenchantments of the World, Curatorial & Co. Gallery, NSW
Anthropocene: The Age of Humans, Virtual Exhibition, Curatorial & Co, NSW
Others Dream Modern Times, Melbourne, VIC
2019
Reawaken, Craig’s Royal Hotel in collaboration with the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat VIC
Untitled, Metro Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
Things of Fire and Ash, Remembered Victorian Police Museum, Melbourne, VIC
2018
Coral Lands Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2017
Plastic Fish Junior Space, Melbourne, VIC
2015
Anja Red Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2013
Things of Fire and Ash Victorian Police Museum, Melbourne, VIC, touring Nationally
2012
She Raw Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
She Raw Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
Selected Recent Group Shows
2021
Du Rietz Art Awards, Gympie Regional gallery, QLD
Flora, Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens, VIC
Art in the Plague Year, UCR Arts, California Museum of Photography
Ilford CCP Salon, CCP, Melbourne
Darlings, Curatorial & Co. Gallery, Sydney
2020
Women and Photography, Ovada Gallery, Oxford, UK
Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW ICP Concerned: Global images for Global crisis International Center of Photography, New York, USA
Talismans, Rafts, Mementos, Modern Times, Melbourne
Here With Me, Curatorial & Co., Sydney
Du Reitz Art Awards, Gympie Regional Gallery, QLD
Percival Portrait Prize, Perc Tucker, QLD
Loud and Luminous, Contact Sheet Gallery, Sydney
2019
Chapter One, Pix on Location, Sydney
Summer Group, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
Ritual Practice, Modern Times, Melbourne
Rose Rouge Kaisu, Tokyo, Japan
Midyear Selection, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
Sun Celebrates Her Sun Studios, Melbourne
Her Wild Dreaming Schoolhouse Studios, Melbourne Winter Group Show Metro Gallery, Melbourne
Loud & Luminous Head On Photo Festival, Contact Sheet Gallery, Sydney
National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, NSW, touring Nationally
Fifty Squared Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery
2018
PCP Collective, Perth Centre for Photography
ILFORD CCP Salon, Contemporary Centre of Photography
Summer Group Exhibition, Metro Gallery
The Luxury of Landscape, Pilazzo Pandolfini, Tuscany, Italy
The Last Line of Defence, Besser Space, Melbourne
Candyland for CanTeen Art Auction, NAB Graduate Fundraiser, Melbourne
Hyper, 222 Roslyn Gallery, Melbourne
Contemporary Art Awards Finalists, online group exhibition
STILL, National Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW
2017
Click 17 Photographic Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery
Her Way, 5 Rankins Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2016
BlümchenSex, Palmengarten, Frankfurt, Germany
Phantom Paradise, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney
2015
Keeping Company: Saltwater, Manly Art Gallery, Sydney Unreal, Head On Photo Festival, M2 Gallery, Sydney
ANJA Pop-Up Exhibition, Leonard St, Melbourne
2014
Finalists, Head On Photo Festival, Sydney
2013
Stockroom, Carbon Black Gallery, Melbourne
Art in Mind, The Brick Lane Gallery, London
Head On Photo Festival, State Library of NSW
The Kinglake Project, The Cube Gallery, Melbourne
2012
SUB 1000, Carbon Black Gallery, Melbourne
Kodak Salon, CCP, Melbourne
Doug Moran House Contemporary Photographic Exhibition, NSW, touring Nationally
2011
The Collective, Off The Kerb Gallery, Melbourne
2010
Snapshot 10/10, Carbon Black Gallery, Melbourne
Awards and Prizes
2021
Finalist x 2, Du Rietz Art Awards
Finalist, Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize
Finalist, Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art
2020
Finalist x 3, Australian Photography Awards
Honourable Mention, International Photography Awards Finalist, Photo Oxford Festival
Finalist, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award
Finalist, Beautiful Bizarre Art Award 2020 Highly Commended, The Mono Awards
Finalist, Du Reitz Art Awards 2020 Finalist, Percival Photographic Portrait Prize
Finalist, Biennal Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize
2019
Honourable Mention, Budapest International Photo Awards
Shortlisted, Australian Photography Awards
Finalist, Now Contemporary Art Prize
Finalist, Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize
Finalist, Iris Awards, Perth Centre for Photography Commended, The Mono Awards
Finalist, Incinerator Art Award
Highly Commended, Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers Award
Finalist, National Photographic Portrait Prize
2018
Finalist, Australian Photography Awards
Finalist, Art Aesthetica Art Prize, UK
2017
Finalist, Contemporary Art Awards
Top rated entries, Lens Culture Portrait Awards
Finalist, National Still Life Award
Finalist, Click 17 Photographic Art Prize, Brunswick St Gallery
Semi-Finalist, Head On Portrait Prize, Museum of Sydney
2015
Semi-Finalist, Head On Portrait Prize, Museum of Sydney
Top rated entries, Lens Culture Portrait Awards
2013
Finalist, Head On Portrait Prize
Highly Commended, Qantas Soya Award
2012
Highly Commended, Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize
Semi-Finalist x 2, Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize
Highly Commended, Qantas Soya Award
2011
Winner, She Raw Focus Project People's Choice
2003
Best Photographic Folio, Photographic Imaging College
2001
Atom Awards, Finalist, Senior Secondary Music Video Diegesis Award, Winner of Secondary Music Video
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